ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with developmental events in the anatomy of cerebral cortex that occur postnatally during infancy and childhood, and their relation to the development of cortical function. An exiting aspect of human brain development is the fact that the brain continues to be shaped and molded throughout the childhood years, an observation that we have become more aware of in the last decade or so. Prior to that, we had little information that was helpful in relating cognitive development during the childhood years to changes in the anatomy of the brain. The brain seemed to be fully grown by age 2 years, and yet most of cognitive development occurred later, apparently divorced from any changes in structural organization. This made it acceptable for developmental psychologists to ignore the field of developmental neurobiology, which seemed remote and irrelevant to their concerns. This long accepted approach is becoming less tenable as data from developmental neurobiology converge with data derived from studies of cognitive development. Regions of convergence will increase in the near future as new technologies begin to have an impact on the study of neural-cognitive relationships. A good example of such new technologies is functional imaging of the brain. The development of noninvasive functional imaging with the magnetic resonance (MRI) technique will make it possible to look at the developing neural substrate, including emergence of cerebral neuronal circuitry, that underlies cognitive development. Intelligent exploitation of these new technologies will in turn require a working knowledge of the underlying substrate, the developing brain.
